(Topic ID: 49623)

JM Johnny Mnemonic hand motor noisy

By lavmech1

10 years ago


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  • 83 posts
  • 33 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 2 years ago by Gorgar666
  • Topic is favorited by 24 Pinsiders

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There are 83 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 2.
#1 10 years ago

Before I try to even find a replacement motor for my JM glove, does anyone know if something can be done to stop a terrible squealing noise that the motor makes when the glove travels forward and backward? Sounds like its coming from the gear box attached to the motor. I don't think that is serviceable without splitting it open (and then what?) It doesn't sound like the X or Y nut (not sure which is which), but maybe that's contributing to the noise if its making the rod hard to turn. Any thoughts? Any leads on a new or used hand motor? Thanks!

#2 10 years ago

I've never seen a JM box but you generally can drill out the rivots and carefully clean the gears. If that is not an option you could spray in a ton of a degreaser like w-d40 through the motor hole and then flush it with 99% alcohol followed by new machine oil. I'd prefer to get grease in there like super lube. Pinball Resources may repair/replace it if you don't touch it first.

#3 10 years ago

I just fixed this very same issue on my JM. You can open up the gear box on it. It has 4 screws holding it together. I then cleaned the old grease out (although there wasn't much in there) and then I added more grease. I made sure to move the gears back and forth to really work the grease in.

Let me know if you need any more help.

Mike

#4 10 years ago
Quoted from mbt:

I just fixed this very same issue on my JM. You can open up the gear box on it. It has 4 screws holding it together. I then cleaned the old grease out (although there wasn't much in there) and then I added more grease. I made sure to move the gears back and forth to really work the grease in.
Let me know if you need any more help.
Mike

Same here. When I had mine, I was able to open it up (4 screws), cleaned the old grease out and added some more. It made a HUGE difference and it sounded like a new machine. One gearbox was louder than the other, but I did both anyways.

#5 10 years ago

Good to know this.

#6 10 years ago

Just did this yesterday to the y motor. In addition to making sure the gears were clean and well greased, I added 2 drops of tool oil where the shaft comes through the motor housing into the gear box. That got rid of the banshees. (Thanks to the always awesome Kris at Firebird for the tip).

This was particularly frustrating because we had a spare x and y nut. We replaced the y nut first because people always seem to recommend doing that for hand problems. Nice to have a new part on there, and have that worm gear all cleaned up, but the problem ended up being in the motor/gears.

#7 10 years ago

In case it is helpful, here is what the gearbox will look like when you open it up.
I'm curious if any of the other people with the issue oiled/greased the shaft at all, FWIW I labelled where I did (after cleaning it up).

JM_gearbox.jpgJM_gearbox.jpg

#8 10 years ago

Great thread. What kind of grease or oil do you all use to replace the old stuff?

#9 10 years ago

Sounds like you need a handjob.

#10 10 years ago
Quoted from swampfire:

Great thread. What kind of grease or oil do you all use to replace the old stuff?

I used lithium grease that can be purchased at most hardware stores.

#11 10 years ago
Quoted from tbmi:

I used lithium grease that can be purchased at most hardware stores.

Great.

Anyone have the kind of oil that they would recommend? I've got my gearbox apart right now. Just need to clean out the old grease, add new grease, and I'd like to oil the gear/shaft as indicated in Ghostrachel's picture.

#13 10 years ago

Followed instructions listed here and fixed the terrible screeching noise that I had in the glove.

I used a drop of 3 in 1 oil, not sure if that was really needed or not. Pretty sure the new grease did the trick.

#14 10 years ago

Love it! Thanks for the info Rob's and everyone else. My JM Glove will be getting the full teardown and rebuild shortly with new X-Y Nuts and lube (that sounds super dirty)

#15 10 years ago
Quoted from fattrain:

Love it! Thanks for the info Rob's and everyone else. My JM Glove will be getting the full teardown and rebuild shortly with new X-Y Nuts and lube (that sounds super dirty)

By the way, mine was a double whammy.

First, my glove started screeching badly. Less than 24 hours later, the glove stopped working altogether. I figured that the two issues were related, so I though that once I replaced the X nut, the screeching would stop and the glove would start working again.

Well, I put a new X nut on, and that got the glove moving as it should, but the loud screeching noise was still there. In order to fix the noise, I had to take the gear box apart as shown here. It was the gear box that moves the glove left to right (X).

#16 10 years ago

Just got the whole assemlbly ripped out... Time to begin work image.jpgimage.jpg

#17 10 years ago

Take your time and have fun!

#18 10 years ago
Quoted from fattrain:

Just got the whole assemlbly ripped out... Time to begin work

You got this, no problem!

BTW...Good time to put LEDs in the matrix

#19 10 years ago

I removed my noisy motor, cleaned it, re-greased it, added the "drop of oil" where indicated above, and now it is dead silent! Amazing!!! I'll have to do the other motor now because it seems loud in comparison to my newly greased one. Thanks again for the advice.

#20 10 years ago

Where you able to take apart the motor without removing the assembly/backboard?

#21 10 years ago
Quoted from Pinballer22:

Where you able to take apart the motor without removing the assembly/backboard?

I did. Not sure it wouldn't have been easier to just pull the whole assembly out like Fattrain did though.

#22 10 years ago
Quoted from RobT:

I did. Not sure it wouldn't have been easier to just pull the whole assembly out like Fattrain did though.

It makes the job MUCH easier to pull the whole assembly. I tried both ways when I had JM years ago. Second time I pulled the assembly. Easier to work on when it is on a bench

#23 10 years ago
Quoted from dsuperbee:

It makes the job MUCH easier to pull the whole assembly. I tried both ways when I had JM years ago. Second time I pulled the assembly. Easier to work on when it is on a bench

Yep, if I had to do it again, I'd pull the whole assembly for sure.

#24 10 years ago

Alright fella's.

I hit a little snag last night when I realized I completely missing the spider coupler for the x-axis shaft. It had been working but was metal on metal instead of having the nice rubber spacer (spider coupler) in it. After getting the part # from the manual the only place I could find that had it is out of Europe. Ughhh...

So I ordered last night and I guess my whole damn assembly will remain on my kitchen table until it gets here, lol.

I did get both gearbox's cracked open and cleaned though Here's some Dirty pics.

P.S. Brian - That's a little bag of LED's in that first pics for the hand matrix

IMG_0712.JPGIMG_0712.JPG IMG_0713.JPGIMG_0713.JPG

#25 10 years ago

Here's a pic of the spider coupler that I am missing (I'm showing the one I pulled from the Y-motor, the X-motor one was missing completely and you could tell the metal hooks were starting to dig into eachother + I'm sure that didn't help in the noise dept. either)

IMG_0714.JPGIMG_0714.JPG

#26 10 years ago

Did you look in the bottom of the cabinet to see if it might have fallen in there?

#27 10 years ago

I'll look in the bottom of the cab when I get home from work but I placed a rush order for 2 spares anyway from BestOfPinball.de

3.99 euro's a piece plus shipping is how you spend ~$26 on 2 rubber X's

#28 10 years ago
Quoted from fattrain:

So I ordered last night and I guess my whole damn assembly will remain on my kitchen table until it gets here, lol.

Perfectly good use for a kitchen table. I know I saw the spider coupler in my Y assembly, but I can't remember if my x had one or not now that I think about it...

We should compile a proper repair tutorial with some pics for the glove assembly. I can see people needing this info for many years to come!

#29 10 years ago
Quoted from canea:

We should compile a proper repair tutorial with some pics for the glove assembly. I can see people needing this info for many years to come!

My thoughts EXACTLY but I didn't want to start figuring out a process or documenting it until I re-assembled it and everything worked right LOL.

I will say that removing the entire assembly was pretty damn easy. It's only like 8 lock nuts (w/ washers) on the very bottom back of the Playfield. I just pulled the Playfield forward until it locked into place and then just reached behind it to remove the nuts. I then had to loosen the three nuts holding in the center middle ramp so I can move it out of the way and the playfield back-board came right up and out.

(It has about 6 different molex connectors that you have to unhook as well)

#30 10 years ago

Mine is working just fine at the moment. However, I am currently doing some work on the pin, and was curious of it was worth doing this now as preventative maintinace?

#31 10 years ago
Quoted from EvilJack:

Mine is working just fine at the moment. However, I am currently doing some work on the pin, and was curious of it was worth doing this now as preventative maintinace?

YES. Just to clean the old grease out of the gearbox and get new stuff in there that is not almost 20 years old is worth it.

#32 10 years ago
Quoted from fattrain:

My thoughts EXACTLY but I didn't want to start figuring out a process or documenting it until I re-assembled it and everything worked right LOL.
I will say that removing the entire assembly was pretty damn easy.

I didn't take out the whole assembly, just replaced the x nut from the right side and the y nut from the front/top. I wish I would have opened up the gearboxes while I was at it, but didn't really realize that was something I could do. Mine moves pretty smoothly, but isn't entirely quiet. Not screeching yet, I guess. But next time I get in there I'll take a bunch of pictures. Don't know why I didn't the first time.

#33 10 years ago
Quoted from canea:

I'll take a bunch of pictures. Don't know why I didn't the first time.

I tried to take pics but my hands were filled with black grease almost instantly, lol. I would recommend a photographer helper....

#34 10 years ago

I am curious fattrain....what was the butter knife used for?

#35 10 years ago
Quoted from Pinballer22:

I am curious fattrain....what was the butter knife used for?

Toast!

#36 10 years ago
Quoted from Pinballer22:

I am curious fattrain....what was the butter knife used for?

Hehe. Me and E-Clips didn't get along very well so that was my, "I'm gonna pry you off that shaft F#$%ker" Knife

#37 10 years ago
Quoted from fattrain:

Hehe. Me and E-Clips didn't get along very well so that was my, "I'm gonna pry you off that shaft F#$%ker" Knife

Those things are truly, truly awful.

Is there a "correct" way to remove them? A tool or something? Every time I deal with them, I almost break something or cut myself.

#38 10 years ago

LOL, had to ask.

#39 10 years ago

Well since I have my entire JM playfield removed at the moment I might as dig into this!

Mine seemed to be working fine but as someone else mentioned, removing the 20 year old grease and redoing it is probably a good idea.

#40 10 years ago
Quoted from Astropin:

Mine seemed to be working fine but as someone else mentioned, removing the 20 year old grease and redoing it is probably a good idea.

Ya mine looked just like the gearbox pictured above. That "goop" was decently hardened but came out really easily.

#41 10 years ago

I had to order a new ball in hand switch so I should do this project while im at it.I will get the 411 from you this weekend at PAGG

#42 10 years ago
Quoted from canea:

Those things are truly, truly awful.
Is there a "correct" way to remove them? A tool or something? Every time I deal with them, I almost break something or cut myself.

Yes, there is a tool. I got mine at Home Depot for about 15 bucks. Cannot remember the name, but I am sure if you asked for an e-clip removal tool they will point you where you need to go. It works very well and on all e-clips unless they are VERY small.

#43 10 years ago

It works very well and on all e-clips unless they are VERY small.

Like these?? I called them the e-clips of death! I've never seen e-clips so small! Seriously! I got a mini-MINI screwdriver in there and applied pressure and when that thing popped off it hit me in the eye and then I got to spend 15min looking for something the size of 7 grains of sand. Not Fun.

Image below of said "E Clip of Death" hehe

e-clips-of-death.jpge-clips-of-death.jpg

#44 10 years ago
Quoted from Xscrapiron:

I had to order a new ball in hand switch so I should do this project while im at it.I will get the 411 from you this weekend at PAGG

I'm curious where you found the new ball in hand switch. I thought these were intentionally taken out of the machines to make the glove operate more predictably? Mine's gone, anyhow.

Quoted from fattrain:

Like these?? I called them the e-clips of death! I've never seen e-clips so small! Seriously! I got a mini-MINI screwdriver in there and applied pressure and when that thing popped off it hit me in the eye and then I got to spend 15min looking for something the size of 7 grains of sand. Not Fun.
Image below of said "E Clip of Death" hehe

Hahah, I lost BOTH of these after I took them out! They just straight up disappeared. I looked for like 15 minutes and gave up. Luckily they had them at Home Despot. I bought extras for when I lose them next time.

#45 10 years ago
Quoted from canea:

I thought these were intentionally taken out of the machines to make the glove operate more predictably

Wow. I knew they were impossible to find for awhile and most people kind of "fab'd" one themselves but taking it out completely? Does it just throw you a credit dot and thats that?

#46 10 years ago

It gives me an error about once every four times I turn it on. "Error - Ball in Hand Switch Stuck Closed." Works fine though.

I think people took them out because the switch can cause the glove to drop the ball when it shouldn't if it doesn't register the ball properly. But when it's taken out, it gets rid of that problem (but leaves you with the error). I'm kind of talking out of my ass right now. Read something to that effect, probably on pinside.

#47 10 years ago

The switch is an EOS switch. It reduces the power to the magnet once the ball is in there.

When you don't have a working switch, the glove still works, it just remains at full power until the ball is dropped.

My switch isn't working, and my magnet never gets hot. The ball is only really in there for less than 10 seconds at a time anyway...

#48 10 years ago

I'm curious where you found the new ball in hand switch. I thought these were intentionally taken out of the machines to make the glove operate more predictably? Mine's gone, anyhow.

Shawk and awe pricing but here ya go just a heads up I still have yet to get a shipping conf so who knows http://mad-amusements.com/product.php?id_product=403

Also If anyone knows how I might salvage the old one let me know.beyond brittle part..garbage

20130513_232256.jpg20130513_232256.jpg

#49 10 years ago

Good info in this thread thanks all for sharing.

#50 10 years ago
Quoted from tamoore:

The switch is an EOS switch. It reduces the power to the magnet once the ball is in there.
When you don't have a working switch, the glove still works, it just remains at full power until the ball is dropped.
My switch isn't working, and my magnet never gets hot. The ball is only really in there for less than 10 seconds at a time anyway...

From my understanding, this is half correct. The switch does drop the power to the magnet once closed. But what i read in a few places (assuming you have the 2nd rev of the code i think) is that if the switch is not activated after a certain time (milliseconds) that the ball is shot up, then the CPU reduces the power anyway (as part of the code). I've had two JMs, one never had the switch, the other worked intermittently, so i removed it and have never had a problem since - unless the credit dot really annoys you!

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